Why Is Customer Onboarding Important?

Acquiring new customers is only the beginning when it comes to creating meaningful and ongoing relationships with your new customers. The last thing your institution wants is to lose new customers shortly after finding them because your processes are too difficult for them to thoroughly learn on their own, they are not sure if they are getting the most out of everything you have to offer, or they do not feel valued as members of your bank or credit union.

A strong customer onboarding program helps to fill in the gaps that may leave your new customers confused, frustrated, or disappointed if they are left to figure everything out on their own. The customer onboarding process is an essential part of your bank or credit union’s success. By taking time to design a quality program that answers common questions before new customers come in, you can ensure they have a solid understanding from day one.

The time and effort that you put into designing your customer onboarding process can significantly pay off in the long run by creating the best possible relationship between your new customers and your bank or credit union. This process creates satisfied customers that stick with your institution for years or even decades, rather than frustrated ones that quickly move on to see if another institution will better meet their needs. In turn, these satisfied customers will help grow your business by referring their friends and family members to you, bringing in the majority of your overall revenue, and potentially lowering the costs of your customer acquisition efforts over time.

The Customer Onboarding Process

Your customer onboarding process should naturally incorporate several strategies that will quickly get your new customers feeling comfortable with your system and allow them to recognize the value of the role it will play in their lives. Your customer onboarding process should introduce your new customers to key aspects of your program, encourage them to use it multiple times within the first week to build familiarity, and make your product an indispensable part of their lives.

Welcome Email

A successful customer onboarding process begins with a welcome email that provides valuable details about getting started with your bank or credit union and matches the tone of your business. Information about how to log into your online banking system if you offer one, an overview of the perks that being a member of your bank or credit union can offer your customers, and contact information for getting in touch with a customer service representative are among the informational details that can build your customers' confidence in your institution. Your welcome email should also provide a balance between the professionalism your business is proud to offer and a warm and welcoming tone that lets your customers know they are appreciated and you are happy to have them as customers.

Other Helpful Messages

Including friendly greeting messages the first time new customers open your app or website helps your customers feel welcome, much like your welcome email. You can also feature callouts that direct your new customers to important features or steps they should take to finish setting up their account or get the most out of using it. These messages take the initial idea of your welcome email a step further by keeping your customers from feeling alone and minimizing confusion when they are getting used to an unfamiliar platform.

Informational Tools to Build Confidence in Your Platform

Getting used to a new app or platform can take time, and your goal should be to keep your customers exploring the first time they log in for as long as possible. By making it as easy as possible for your new customers to learn what your platform's most important features are and how to use them, you can help instill confidence in their ability to navigate your platform. This step can include creating informational videos, infographics, and other tutorials that are easy for your customers to find and walk them through the most important aspects of setting up their accounts and using your platform step by step.

The overall tone of your bank or credit union's instructional videos should match the balance of friendliness and professionalism that you prioritized in your welcome email to create a unified experience for your new customers that both makes them feel welcome and valued and builds their confidence in your bank or credit union as a professional, credible, and secure financial institution.

Including short written messages in empty areas of your customers' new, unused portal is an easy way to help them understand what a particular section should be used for and how to enter the proper information. This step helps keep your new customers from feeling overwhelmed by these blank spaces when the new portal does not appear to be ready for them to use and unsure of how they are supposed to use them.

Each of these videos, messages, and other informational tools should be easy for your customers to find, introduce them to the most important things they will need to know to use your app or website with ease, and convey to them that you care about making the process easier for them and are available to answer any questions they may have. These tools should also find an adequate balance between being detailed enough to explain the most important information your new customers need to confidently start using your platform without leaving them with too many questions and concise enough to keep their interest. It can also be a good idea to split your informational videos up into several short, concise videos about one specific topic that customers can watch quickly and revisit as needed, rather than creating one long video that may not successfully keep their attention.  

Include a Chatbot

No matter how much effort you put into building an onboarding program for orienting your new customers to your online portal, many banking and credit union apps and websites are relatively complex and may still leave your customers with questions. Although getting in touch with an actual person may be essential if your customers are dealing with particularly complicated issues, including a chatbot, list of frequently asked questions, or similar knowledge base in a place that is easy for your customers to find within the portal gives them a way to get basic questions answered in a timely manner without the added hassle of having to figure out how to get in touch with your company.

Commercial Onboarding

Commercial onboarding functions similarly to typical customer onboarding, but it includes additional steps that make setting up and using commercial level bank accounts easier for other companies. This type of onboarding is designed to meet the needs of companies that handle a much higher quantity of money than individuals and may also need to manage payments or other financial needs for each of their respective customers. It should also address the additional legal responsibilities that go into managing a commercial bank account. 

Perfect Your Customer Onboarding Process 

Your customer onboarding process is a complex and multi-faceted program that likely will not be perfect the day that you launch it. Keeping track of how your new customers feel about your onboarding process in its current form can help you determine what types of adjustments will help make it even better in the future. Tracking site metrics can give you an idea of what aspects of your portal are working well from a data standpoint, and asking your new customers to fill out surveys about what they liked during the onboarding process and what they would like to see improved allows you to see the process from the customer's point of view and make adjustments that create a more useful and personalized experience. 

At Cotribute, we are here to simplify the process of acquiring new customers for your bank or credit union, which includes providing resources for improving your customer retention and making your new customers feel comfortable with your company. Contact us today to schedule a demo!